Hardware Review: Feenix Nascita Mouse and Dimora Mousepad

I doubt many of you have heard of gaming peripherals manufacturer Feenix. A small, independently-owned company based in Southern California, Feenix says it believes in quality over quantity, boasts first-class customer service, and claims that professional gamers consider its products to be the finest in the world.

Feenix sent me two of its products so that I could put them to the test: the Nascita 8,200 DPI gaming mouse and the Dimora mousepad.

The Nascita

It’s difficult not to judge a book by its cover when that cover looks so good. Visually, the Nascita’s black and grey design is sleek and elegant. In a time when most peripherals have blue illumination, the Nascita stands apart with a distinctive icy white phoenix logo and unique front lighting that I can only describe as a pair of headlights. An LED display panel built into the mouse shows the currently selected DPI setting, and two buttons in line with the scroll wheel allow you to adjust DPI on the fly.

The mouse is completely plug-and-play and comes with no drivers. The advantage is that you don’t have to deal with any extraneous software; the downside is that you can’t fine-tune the DPI, but rather must select between the in-built options: 8,200, 6,400, 4,800, 3,200, 2,400, 1,600, 1,200, and 800. As a low-sensitivity gamer, 800 felt about right for me, and I thankfully didn’t need to go any lower. However, knowing that I’ve hit the floor isn’t comforting.

I’m a claw-grip gamer, and the Nascita’s form factor — while visually a palm-grip — seems to suit any grip style. The scroll wheel, which does not feature a tilt axis, feels robust and gives enough tactile feedback to prevent over scrolling, but not enough resistance to cause fatigue. The braided cable will prevent the mouse from getting tangled or falling easy prey to pets.

The specifications claim that the Nascita is resistant to “extreme water/beverage” damage. While I cannot comment on this at this time, if I ever accidentally put the mouse to the test, I will report the results.

The Dimora

The Dimora is nothing special to look at — its rectangular design is simple and functional. Frankly, that’s what I want in a mouse pad; I don’t want to be distracted with busy images or have to fit some awkwardly curved shape on my desk. At 11″x13.8″, the Dimora is large enough to suit most gamers’ needs. As a low-sensitivity gamer, it afforded me more than enough room to maneuver.

In order to reduce friction, The Dimora features a micro-textured surface which minimizes the overall contact between the mouse and pad. The science makes sense, but with my old mouse, I actually experienced more friction than with my textureless mousepad. However, once I tried out the Nascita, I experienced the promised reduction in friction. My old mouse has three small feet that are worn and dusty, which must have interfered with the Dimora’s micro-textured surface. On the other hand, the Nascita has two large, smooth feet that glided perfectly.

The Dimora has 12 silicon feet meant to keep the pad firmly in place. For the most part, this holds true. As long as I kept my wrist within the Dimora’s ample boundaries, it didn’t budge. However, brushing against it from the side did make it move.

Final Thoughts

The Dimora is priced competitively at $36, and — no pun intended — any competitive gamer who doesn’t want his skill to be limited by hardware knows he should play on a proper pad rather than some crummy desk surface. The Nascita makes for a quality gaming mouse, though that $97 price point is a little higher than the competition. Whether this cost is justified depends on how much you value customer service and owning a rare item.

In order to ensure its products live up to the company’s exacting standards, Feenix produces no more than 1,000 of each peripheral per month. If having a limited-edition collector’s item is important to you, than you can rest assured that Feenix will never become a household staple brand like Kleenex. Further, every Nascita owner receives her own “personally assigned” support manager. Included in my box was a card with the email address, phone number, and Skype contact information of my assigned support manager. It’s a nice touch, though without any software to download, I can’t imagine many people needing to contact support.

Still, the product quality speaks for itself, and few companies can say that they give out the Skype contact information of their tech support team members. Because of this, I’d say that Feenix delivers on its promises — and it never promised a product for the low-budget gamer.

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